Palestrina: How Fair Thou Art CD review – 16th-century sizzlers

Video for How Fair Thou Art.

That erotic celebration of human love, the Song of Songs, seems a strange subject to set to music for a pope, but all Italy knew that Gregory XIII was more than a little worldly; after all, his son, Giacomo, was a prominent cardinal. Palestrina’s intense, lascivious pieces would surely have appealed to their dedicatee, with their praise of rounded navels, sweet breasts and the comely daughters of Jerusalem. The King’s Singers maintain an admirably cool approach to these 16th-century sizzlers, and bookend them with four of the composer’s more sober Marian motets, but their trademark sound is marred by some disappointing vibrato creeping into the countertenor lines.